SALEM + LIGHT ASYLUM @ THE ECHOPLEX

Ugh. Echoplex. Light Asylum might be the best band that has performed at you in months, and everyone is just standing around? WTF?

OK, so most people may have been at Check Yo Ponytail to see Salem, who are good and fine, but Light Asylum should have made every Dick and Mary (puns intended!) shake their tushies. They started out slow with a sort of “Days of Our Lives” vibe on the opener and a couple of shoegazey numbers, before frontwoman Shannon Funchess came out from behind her keyboards and drum machines to rock the mic like only she can, flashing her Michelle Obama biceps and Kid N Play haircut in perfect alignment with the forceful bombast of her voice on “Dark Allies.” Somewhere between the bellow of Ian Curtis, commanding presence of Grace Jones and growl of Marilyn Manson lies Funchess—there’s simply no young performer like her right now.

But even she struggled to be heard over pulverizing synths, asking the audience at one point if they could hear everything all right. By the time they played their signature song, “A Certain Person,” a plaintive techno ballad replete with epic vocals and the reverbed sample of a horse neighing, everything seemed to have come together and I could see people starting to “get” it. It sort of dawns on you watching them that even if Light Asylum fades into obscurity before they get their due, they’ll have been better than anyone really realized.